JPod

Jpod is the name of a pod in the basement of a video game company called the Neotronic Arts. A Y2K glitch caused workers with the last name beginning with ‘J’ to be sent to this pod, hence Jpod. Jpod is based on the Douglas Coupland novel of the same name. I read the book after seeing the series and it was just as insane and experimental as the show. I’m glad I consumed them in this order as I can only imagine how pessimistic I would have been about a TV adaptation.

Onto the characters: there’s Ethan the med school drop-out and gore specialist, Cowboy (cancer cowboy) Yale dropout and coder extraordinaire, Bree the motion capture or “mo cap” specialist with a penchant for kinky sex items (was raised by strict Chinese parents), John Doe an exceptional hacker amongst other things, who was brought up by a lesbian mother on a lesbian hippie commune (real name juniper with a small j), he’s trying to be normal and finally Kaitlyn, former fatty and teen mother who previously worked at Apple in the USA and came to Canada to follow her clown boyfriend.

These are the podsters. Besides the podsters we meet their parents, their bosses, gang members and many insane and over-the-top but completely lovable characters. There’s their Boss Steven who hangs out at hug clubs and has the hots for Ethan’s mum, Ethan’s mum grows and sells pot and his dad is a wannabe actor and ballroom dancer who hangs out with a Chinese mogul who has his fingers in everything from sweat shops to pornos. There’s too many to mention but they are all great characters no matter how small their role.

Each episode is crammed full of plot twists and escapades, so it’s not all about making video games. But when they are the video games are gory as hell.

Some may find the fast pacing and crammed-full-plot a bit much, but if you like gore, twisted drama, absurdism, weird sex and jokes at the expense of Lesbian hippie communes, then you’re going to love this show.

Sadly the show got canceled after one season, CBC apparently changed the screening time from mid-week to Friday night and the show lost a lot of its viewers. It’s like a marker for every great show, that it gets canceled and goes on to become a cult TV show with a bigger audience post-DVD release.

If you like the humor and styles of shows like (early seasons of) Community, IT Crowd, Weeds and Arrested Development, then I’d highly advise you check out Jpod as soon as possible. I can’t recommend this show enough.

There’s no extras but do not let this put you off buying the DVD. The show creates such an awesome world and insane characters that to have the illusion shattered would not be worth it.